


Post-War Depression

by Koniro_Yotsuyu



Series: The Battle of Winter and Summer [2]
Category: Captain America (Movies), Captain America - All Media Types, Iron Man (Movies), Iron Man - All Media Types, The Avengers (Marvel Movies), The Avengers (Marvel) - All Media Types
Genre: Alcohol, Alcoholism, Angst, Canon Universe, Captain America: Civil War (Movie) Spoilers, Character Study, Civil War, Civil War (Marvel), Crack, Crack and Angst, Depression, Drachenfutter, Fluff and Crack, Insomnia, Language, M/M, Masturbation, Night Terrors, Post-Captain America: Civil War (Movie), Post-Traumatic Stress Disorder - PTSD, Texting, mention of sexbots
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2016-05-06
Updated: 2016-06-24
Packaged: 2018-06-06 19:49:40
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Graphic Depictions Of Violence
Chapters: 21
Words: 19,296
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/6767512
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Koniro_Yotsuyu/pseuds/Koniro_Yotsuyu
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>After the events of Civil war, Tony hits an all time low and picks back up on some old habits, the most embarrassing one: drunk-texting Steve</p><p>Alternately: Red-Blue husbands can't stay mad at each other(spoiler warning:they totally can)</p><p>I will tag other pairs as they come along but will have their chapters linked outside of this work as separate one shots (that way i can cram in as many pairs as possible without all the love triangle drama that it would cause)</p>
            </blockquote>





	1. Pants on Fire

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Lost? Check out the Index of the series!!! http://archiveofourown.org/works/6972436

 

_Deep breaths and long, long nights of sleepless work, the usual._

After Pepper was officially out of his life, he had gone back to a number of bad habits, and that number was four.

Number one: alcohol, number two: sex, number three: spending day and night working on different suits and enhancements.

Number four… drunk texting Steve

He was still not over what had happened the last time they saw each other, he understood where Steve was coming from, but he really couldn’t be the bigger man in this situation, the one incident that had singlehandedly driven his already pathetic life down a deep, dark and cold rabbit hole was caused by someone that he was now defending.

Deep down he knew that Barnes was more broken than him, that he was not in control of himself, but he couldn’t bring himself to stop thinking about it, hoping that somehow getting some kind of justice for it would bring him peace.

At the same time he was aware that his death toll was probably higher than his, that he was responsible for thousands of innocent lives being lost. The merchant of death, it haunted him, and that probably haunted the Winter Soldier too.

But he still couldn’t be the bigger man, he couldn’t be the one who made a sacrifice, he had lost enough, Bruce had left, Pepper had left, and now half of the avengers had also left. They weren’t being the bigger man, how ridiculous “what if we are told to do something that is wrong?” then we just don’t do it! When he had to step outside the law and break the rules, he did, and if he could so can they, when the time called for it. There was no need to make such a big deal out of this, and the reason why this had become such a big deal was also because of him.

He had lost enough, and he wasn’t about to let anyone take anything else.

That being said… after about two months, he picked back up on the habit, one night, after his third consecutive night of sex alcohol and science, he picked up that phone and spilled his heart out, like he used to do back then.

It had all started with him trying to teach Steve how texting and phones worked, but after hours of chatting it had become sort of a ritual, that he would talk to Steve about the way he felt, and Steve would talk to him… and neither one of them would acknowledge anything said once they were face to face.

He had his heart to heart conversations with Bruce but that didn’t happen often because Bruce wasn’t the feelings type of guy, surprising right? One time, he fell asleep when he talked about it. And honestly he felt bad, Bruce was another person who had lost everything, probably more than anyone else, he suspected that Bruce had put up that wall because anything that could remind him of himself would make him hulk out, no, their relationship was better off in jokes and science and understanding each other with little words needed. And he missed him even more than he missed her.

But where to start, with the way he felt, out of all of these emotions, which one would he put up first?

-you are an idiot

Aaand send… off to a good start!

-Tony, is everything alright?

-welll…. That depends on your deffintion of alright, does pantless in a lab unable to recall what day it is or what I’ve been doing for the last week qualify as alright? Don’t worry no earth shattering situation cap, I was just wondering why the fuck would you pic such a shit phone to give me

Steve took some time to reply.

-Bucky is back to cryogenic sleep, it was his own choice, he says that until he stops being dangerous, is best for him to stay asleep

-how thoughtful

-it wasn’t him… what he did… he was not himself

And you know that

-I know

They said almost at the same time.

-That’s why you helped me, isn’t it?

-no, I helped you because I wouldn’t let them rot in that cell… and because if he goes bonkers again is best to have a big chunk of people around to take care of him

Again, he took time to respond.

-Clint said he wanted to apologize for what he said about you, he was angry and didn’t think straight.

-oh, good to know, kind of over that c, I went to visit him a while ago, gave his kids some toys… he apologized in person and so did i

-Oh, I’m glad.

There was a long pause

-so why are you pant-less in your lab and unable to recall what you did in the last week?

-not sure, I think I might have set them on fire

-Tony…

-WELL WHAT ELSE IS NEW? What exactly do you not understand about my current situation??

-… Well for one… Why you wanted to talk to me of all people.

-oh and who should I talk to instead? Bruce? Pepper?

-Rhodey?

-the last time I was like this he kicked my ass and took my suit… and he can’t really do that now

-I’m sorry.

-you wouldn’t be you if you weren’t, in any case I don’t… think it’s right to bother him with all this, he has his own problems right now

-Have you talked to the kid? they call him Spiderman.

-oh, yeah a couple of times, when I was sober, he is a really great  kid, he is smart and had a way of dealing with things

-Reminds me of someone I know.

-great idea! Boost my ego, lord knows that’s the quintessential problem I have, what would I do without you to remind me of my various dashing talents?

\- I didn’t mean it like that! You have a lot in common, maybe you should spend more time with him, that might help you feel better.

Both of you, you are his hero.

-shocking huh?

-Did you hear him? “Mr. Stark said this and this and that, guys I really have to impress Mr. Stark”

-well I did give him a student grant… and a suit

-you did… um, can I ask you something?

-shoot

-when you had the chance… to hide who you were… why didn’t you?

-because, eventually people would find out and because secrets invite discovery, and if I wasn’t able to take what came with my actions, whichever consequences there may be… then im no better than I was when I was the merchant of death. also I didn’t feel like it

-do you ever regret it?

-no, I regret many things, but not that,, I regret, selling nuclear weapons, I regret letting so many people die when I was trying to save the day, I regret not beign able to have closure with my dad…

-you know I wish I could be on your side

-no you don’t, we are never on the same side, we only get on the same side when theres some big baddie that we need to take down, and only if that big baddie isn’t your big buddy… cap, do you really think that if we were told to do something that wasn’t right I would do it? I went against order twice right after I signed. That was the whole point of ironman remember? To not put dangerous weapons in the hands of people with agendas.

-and what if you don’t have all the information?

-I always have all the information. I don’t remember doing everything the council decided we should do back when we responded to shield, in fact, I can very vividly recall disposing off a nuke that they had directed to new York, remember that? It was kind of a big deal I almost died, it was the whole reason why imade ultron and then vision, sort of what caused a big part of this mess, remember all of that?

-Of course I remember…Do you think we are safe now?

-well… safer than we would be without vision, nowhere near as safe as we would be if ultron hadn’t been a catastrophic failure

-What about Thor?

-what about thor? He himself said that his brother was not like that, that whatever he had seen had turned him ten times crazier

-It’s his brother, you should take that with a grain of salt.

-oh should i? because from what I’ve heard as shady as he was, his general aspiration was to take the throne not destroy an entire realm to ruel over the ashes, seems awfully contrived

-So what will we do when the time comes?

-suit up! Hopefully there are a bunch more guys like thor out there, that would be good… and try to take things somewhere else, I don’t really have much planned, not enough info

-You have done a lot with what you have… Listen, about Ultron, I know you were coming from the right place… And, I would be a huge hypocrite if I didn’t tell you what I told Wanda: If you hadn’t tried that, we wouldn’t have vision, you were trying to save people and you couldn’t save everybody, but perhaps on the long run you made the number smaller.

-that’s one way to put it, one hell of a way to rationalize it too, next thing you’ll be telling me that back then I wasn’t really me and I shouldn’t be held responsible for my actions for that reason

-Well then good thing that the families of the people you have killed didn’t have super-suits to come and kill **you** for it!

They were both silent for a long time.

-I shouldn’t have said that

-I hit a nerve… but now that you mention it, there was this guy who tried to kill me with a supersuit because I had apparently killed his family, not sure if it was true but what gives, I killed many families

-What happened to him?

-he blew up his suit while he was in it

-Oh…

-honestly I was a bit busy trying to deal with radiation poisoning so ididn’t pay much attention to the whole “guy with suits trying to kill me” for a while

And then I had a virtual heart to heart with my dad… that was all very confusing too

\- It seems like you are always dealing with something.

Tony let out a sigh.

-I’m not going to try to kill him

that doesn’t mean I wouldn’t like to,

-I know. I appreciate that.

-you better

-I refuse to believe that there isn’t a solution.

-Steve, people don’t recover from shit like that, it’s not the kind of thing that leaves you.

-You two have more on in common than one would initially think… and I refuse to believe you can’t recover either.

-you are too naïve

-Maybe… Or maybe you are too cynical.

-it’s funny how things change when you know the killer or the victim huh? All of the sudden your perspective changes entirely

-Does it? My perspective on you hasn’t changed at all, you are still a jerk.

Tony?

???

 

He had passed out.

 

 

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I don't think i missed anything, but if i did, let me know, Tony's typos and bad grammar are intentional, he is texting and he is too drunk to use proper punctuation. Don't worry, he won't be talking like that through the whole fic.  
> Please let me know what you thought about it and tell me which pairs you want to see in this, i might even bring a certain Asgardian god into the story once the post-Civil War angst is over and they start to get ready for Thanos.


	2. Tony's Secret Talent

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Cap is not doing much better...

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> next chapter will be an optional Stony chat ;)   
> (EDIT: I lied sorry TOT)

The days went by and Steve was starting to feel more and more depressed. Every day he spent hours looking at Bucky in his cryogenic sleep. And every couple of days, he would talk to Tony. He was never the one who started it, but that didn’t mean he didn’t do just as much venting as Tony did… With some reservations, because he never mentioned Bucky because he figured it was like rubbing salt on a wound. Not that the guy didn’t realize this, as he brought up in their tenth late night chat:

-why do you keep avoiding any mention of him?

-Is it that obvious?

-I would be a huge moron if I didn’t notice the fact that he is kind of a big deal for you, you did go rogue mostly for him

\- I would have done it for anyone on the team.

-But he is not just anyone on the team, you two go waay further back, and I’m not sure about what kind of relationship you had but whatever it was, you didn’t have anything the like before or after the iceberg crash.

He was thoughtful for a moment, he had never talked too much about Bucky, especially not to him, but he had noticed that Tony did happen to be someone surprisingly perceptive of the way people felt. He was the first to call things out with Bruce and Natasha, he was too with Vision and Wanda, and in numerous occasions he had even been able to know the outcome of different encounters before they happened or know how things had gone down without being told. For such an arrogant idiot, who lacked the capacity to maintain any relationship, he was surprisingly good with people.

-Before the serum I was no one, and Bucky was always there to help me out, I was nothing, I was weak and I wasn’t the brightest either, I didn’t have a lot of money and I only had my willpower and good spirits to get me into the army, and Bucky was my closest friend even then. When the whole serum thing happened, he was right there by me. I thought he would get mad, now that I was the one who was bigger and stronger, got all the attention and all… But he still stayed put, and then I saw him die in front of me. It took forever to let him go, but then I lost everything else, and when I found out that he was alive and… I couldn’t let go of him now, not when my whole world was gone.

-I understand

-How???

-I just do cap, there’s no need to have this grandiose reason or have gone through something like that to know what it must have been like.

-That always puzzled me about you, how do you know so much about people? You knew that Bruce would be back and hulk out in New York, you knew about Widow’s songs, you even had an idea of how the confrontation between Thor and Loki would go. Do you have a third eye? Or some convenient, ex-machina, plot furthering tool that is also used for comic relief?

-nope, i just can identify bits of a person’s story that i understand, and i sort of feel my way around the rest. there will always be parallels between what i’ve gone through and what other people has gone through. but more importantly, i observe behavior and predict future patterns; i observe reactions and predict future emotions. For example: by reading the files on bruce i concluded he was not going to hulk out after a single shock gag, but that’s not why i shocked him when we were at the lab, i did it to see how he reacted to that failed attempt, i focused on his eyes, so see if he was startled, green and most importantly, angry.

-And what did you see?

-neither, he was confused.

-… Now I am confused.

-he didn’t understand why i had done that or what it meant, did it mean i wasn’t afraid of him? if so, why wouldn’t i be? is it because i’m an idiot or because i know better, is it because i trust in his self control or in my ability to contain him? and what if it was just a wild shot in the dark, break a few eggs to make a cake, or it could have been something else entirely.

-Oh, well, and how did that help you?

-well right away I noticed that he is used to people beign afraid to sneeze next to him, and that he was much angrier at that than at the douche who thinks it’s fun to poke him with sharp objects. So after thinking about the implications it had i deduced it came from an understandable desire to not be feared and judged, I pretty much concluded that he would end up hulking out with us eventually, which I later confirmed after I spent some more time with him. It’s just behavior patterns, if you know what people know and how people act and react, you can find out what they want and how they will act later, or perform the same process in reverse

-Huh… You make it sound much colder and calculating than I imagined.

-what did you imagine?

-I don’t know, young Tony Stark desperate to be loved, developing his social skills, or maybe being a naturally emphatic and nurturing person behind all that attitude? Or maybe just having the ability to relate to people?

-you are a hopeless romantic

-No I’m not.

-you so are, my cold pattern predictions tell me that you are

-And what else do they tell you?

-do you really want to know? It might freak you out

-Just how sensitive do you think I am!?

-hmm six out of ten… oh sorry, was it a rhetorical question?

-Try me.

-well… according to my calculations, you must be spending about an hour and half a day on average creepily watching him, about twenty minutes looking at your phone, without counting the time when we talk, and of course, you do an awful amount of brooding. also, according to some wilder estimations, you are either a virgin or marginally bisexual, maybe both because you were too shy to bring it up to that guy, not that it kept you from smooching… no more than three girls, and that’s a generous estimation, all because although you were captain america, you were too much of a hopeless romantic to just sleep around, something i find morally offensive. also chances are that if you did get a date in our current time she has some kind of connection to your past, because let’s face it cap, you can’t let go of it, and you were never the kind of guy who leaves the nest or gets rid of old habits very easily. to have a line of comparison, after being trapped, it took me about a week to get used to my bed again, not that i got much sleep but that was on the ptsd not the bedsheets, it probably took you several months, maybe even a year, btu that’s a generous guess, i would put it somewhere around seven.

Whoa, that is disturbing.

-Why do I talk to you?

-that question has a much longer answer

-It was a rhetorical question!.. Did you know I wasn’t going to accept the terms of the agreement?

-to be honest I think I was fooling myself, maybe that’s why im such a handful with relationships, all my calculations and pattern predictions go to shit when I start assuming people feel the way I would like them to feel

He thought about that for a moment.

-Well I might not have such a talent for predicting disturbingly specific details, but maybe I wasn’t so wrong…

-about what?

-Little tony stark just wanting to be loved ~

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I am SO sorry for making Tony's people skills so OP, but honestly i always thought it was weird that he of all people was always the one who knew how everyone else's relationships were going to play out. At first i wrote it off as suspense of disbelief, but after three movies in which the entire Avengers were together, Tony always being the one who points at relationships in development or guesses what the others are about to do just seemed like too much of a recurrent theme for it to be merely caused by his ability to come up with jokes. I mean, at first you assume everyone just knows that stuff, but then it dawns upon you that it's always him! I don't know, pattern prediction made much more sense to me than an innate ability to relate to people, because otherwise he wouldn't be such an emotional fuckup. Thoughts?


	3. Sexbots and Alcohol

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I kept dancing around this because it felt just too forced to make them get romantic so fast, but I wanted to give you guys a break from this angsty depressive shit. I was about to add something more meaningful romantically, but i had pre-set the format and the amount of texts was exactly the one i had predicted. I just took it as a sign to let them take their time. Hopefully next chapter i'll make them talk about meeting up and in the following one they actually will.

-Hey cap? U awake?

-It’s 3 pm where I am.

-ohhh not very wise cap, now i can track down your location

-I’m not naïve enough to think you don’t know where I am.

-good point, although, to be fair it took me a while… anyways im drinking alone and that’s boring drink with me

-What?

-im sure theres alcohol where you are, come on lets play drinking games, have some fun!

-We have different ideas of what constitutes “fun”.

-awwww don’t be like that! pretty please???

Steve took a while to answer.

-Fine, what game are we playing?

-how about never have i ever?

-How about not that?

-too late, it has already been decided. Come on!!!! Ilol let you start

-Fine, but you won’t like it

-do your worst!

-Never have I ever cheated on someone?

-huh, interesting question, my reputation precedes me doesn’t it? But nope, i haven’t… just to be clear i never cheated on an actual girlfriend, i have slept around and had multiple one night stands but never while i was in something serious.

-Well color me surprised! Your turn.

-never have i ever had sex

-… Yeah, you were right…

-is that a no?

-Yeah

-i knew it!

-My turn… Never have I ever had my heart broken?

-awww you softie… heh if i had a penny for every time that happened, it wouldn’t really matter because pennies are for poor people, i always use card

-Just to be clear I’m talking about times when it wasn’t your fault.

-… do you know me? It’s always my fault, i don’t know if you know this but im kind of an asshole

-… Don’t say that word…

-LANGUAGE!!!

-I’m letting it slide! I’ve let a lot of words slide!

-you have cap, and im proud of you

-You are changing the subject though.

-no im not, i told you, it’s always my fault to some extent

-Hm… If you say so…

-never have i ever kissed a guy

-What?? That’s ridiculous of course not!!! … I mean… Not that there’s anything wrong with it.

-really? 20 year old stevie who has never had a girlfriend surrounded by dudes and it never crossed your mind? Allow me to put on my skepticals for a second there…

-What about you?

-guilty as charged

-Really?

-yup, kissing and everything else… multiple times… with multiple men… i was sure there were some circulating rumors

-There are rumors about everyone and most of them aren’t truth, look who’s talking to you.

-fair point… actually im impressed by how well you are taking it

-What do you mean?

-well back in your time that sort of thing was… kind of taboo

-Don’t be ridiculous homosexuality wasn’t invented five years ago Tony! I would know.

-huh???

-I mean, because… I was there

-……. Never have i ever WANTED to kiss a guy?

-…..

Fine you got me

-oh my god…. I knew it!!! Ohhh i sooo knew it!!!

-Woah calm down, it’s not such a big deal.

\- Oh it’s a very big deal, you see im rather fond of always being right about everything, and this kind of stuff, this is the best, because im well aware that no one else knows!

-What?

-well we did talk about it

-WHAT??

-more specifically you and bucky… ahhh this is the kind of thing that completely strokes my ego!

-Well don’t let it stroke your anything because Bucky is just my friend.

-pssshhhttt whatever you say goldilocks, i’m not buying that

-No I really never even considered that option, he is so clearly not... Like that.

There was an awkward pause

-your turn cap

-you called him Bucky

Shit he did!

-it was the excitement, won’t happen again

-Never have I ever designed a sexbot.

-how did you hear about sexbots?!

-It’s actually a funny story, Falcon made a joke about them and I nearly fell off my chair because I thought they were actually a thing now.

-ohhhh is that one of your fantasies cap? Well, maybe you can seduce vision, he is kind of a robot, but nope, i never found the appeal in robot sex, although im sure i could, if you want ill make you a sexbot

-No, I don’t want a sexbot!

-not judging cap, takes all colors to make a rainbow~

-I DO NOT want a sexbot, my interests are limited to real people, flesh and bone human beings.

-so you wouldn’t fuck someone like thor?

-Absolutely not!!!

-because he is a god or because he is not your type?

-Both!

-What is your type?

-Let’s play a different game.

-alright, I’ll let it slide what should we play?

-Uhm.. Have you ever played “mark it up”?

-… i haven’t, and it’s hard to find a drinking game i haven’t played

-Well it’s very simple, we played it a lot with vets and soldiers. Basically, we take turns picking a subject, and then we both have to say the worst thing about is in regards to that, whoever doesn’t have the worst story drinks.

-simple enough, sounds like fun.

-Ok, well since it was my turn I start, and since we are at it: romance.

-i was 17 and dating this feisty blonde, she was into some weird stuff too, next thing i know, she had tricked me and leaked a sex tape in which i  was dressed as peter pan and she was my tinkerbell, doesn’t get any worst than that

-Wow I don’t think I can beat that… Uhm… my only girlfriend had a relationship with your dad. That’s pretty awkward isn’t it?

-woah, i did not need to know that… but still, peter pan outfit

-I think I should put that on my list.

-I doubt you’ll find it, I hacked it out of every online database and her personal phone too.

-Oh no!

-oh yes! Guess you will never know, you’ll just have to imagine it

-Did you have the thighs or no pants at all?

-no pant’s, only the long dress-like shirt, i also had no underwear

-Oh god!

-I can almost hear you growling from across th sea stevie

-Let’s change the subject please, your turn.

-hmmm masturbation

-You are a disgusting old man.

-you are way older than me sir!

-Ugh, ok, so there was this one time, I was in a tent during the war, it was before I had the serum applied to me and this… six foot tall hairy bearded guy was on the bed next to me, we called him big Steve, because that was his name.

-oh and you were little steve

-Yeah. Anyways, Steve liked to... Pacify himself every other night. And one day Dean, who was also in the tent gets up and throws a pillow in his direction, and those pillows were heavy because we stuffed them with our own clothes, but dean hasn’t bothered to remove his belt from the pillow. So when big Steve blocked the pillow with his hand it went heading straight towards me, the buckle split my eyebrow and gave me a bit of a black eye. But that wasn’t the most ridiculous thing. That was big Steve who insisted on checking out my face to see if I was injured, even though he had not washed his hands at all. Needless to say, after that episode there was quite a bit of teasing about big Steve being my abusive husband.

-wow

-I know.

-just wow, that  is possibly the best war story i’ve ever heard, i drink to you and big steve, may you be happy together till death do you apart

-Well it technically did, when you think about it.

-good point, he will be missed. Ok you got that one cap, your turn now

-Mistakes?

-oh gee, let’s see, selling nuclear weapons to evil warlords, failing to avoid more deaths when i was doing my job, oh ultron! Of course that was a big one, seriously there’s no contest here

-I didn’t tell you about your parents.

-are you really equating that to thousands of lives being taken?

-It’s not really a fair comparison, all throughout my life, there was always someone telling me what to do, I’m a soldier, it’s what I do… or at least it was. If one were to get an average result I’m pretty sure that the percentage of my choices that were bad is higher than yours.

-that makes it rather ironic that we settled for the place we settled in, don’t you think?

-yeah, you are right

Steve thought for a moment

-Maybe this isn’t really a moral issue, maybe it’s not as selfless as we make it, and instead you are tired of making mistakes and I’m tired of being told what to do.

-that’s a fair comparison, but unlike you i didn’t suddenly get thrown into this entirely different world from the one i was used to

-No, you flew towards it holding a nuke in your hands.

-huh, i never thought of it like that

-Promise me something.

-yes?

-When things go down and we have to protect ourselves from what’s out there, promise me you will make as many mistakes as you need to.

-only if you promise me that you will be around to give me hell for it

-Deal.

-deal

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> My plan is for these two to have several sleepovers, then for some science to happen and a friendly intervention. After that I might introduce a couple more characters who wear stylish green. And I haven't decided whether I'm able to handle Tony and Peter without getting EXTREMELY creepy, you tell me. Please leave a comment below, as your opinions often change my mind about where to take the story next. Thanks for reading <3


	4. This is what happens when you take Tony's booze away!

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I lied again! I thought Tony would probably want to surprise him, take it as a way to keep you guessing...(and not the writer being a hot mess who can't make up her mind)

Steve was working out at the ridiculously packed gym, located in their hideout in Wakanda. It was honestly a little ridiculous that everything was so spacious and luxurious, not even at Tony’s house did they have so many expensive things. He was grateful for everything, but the space made him feel lonely. There were little to no colors in the place too, most things were white or silver, the fog around it made the place look even whiter. He felt like he was in some sort of limbo, or maybe a hospital without any people in it. He didn’t like it very much. In fact, he was very happy with the small rooms that tony had set out for each of them, filled with things that they liked, the walls painted with vibrant colors and the furniture spacious and comfortable. It was cozy and intimate… much like the man himself. Talking to pepper he found out that apparently, before becoming ironman, his houses were as spacious as the place where he is now in, and with time he started to lean towards smaller and smaller rooms. Interesting.

He didn’t have the luxury to design and construct his house in whichever way he wanted but if he could, he was sure he would also go for small spaces, in fact, the house that he had been in that resembled his dream home the most was Clint’s. Just big enough for a family to fit inside of it, far removed from the world and dangers that came with it, with a wife and some kids, it was the American dream, after all. But he suspected that there wasn’t anything like that in his future.

He was sweaty and in a bad mood when he saw Sam heading towards him “we got a problem” he said

Steve didn’t wait a second before heading towards the control room and no way this was happening.  
He kept looking at the screen looking for some kid of explanation, there was none; the red figure was strolling around the mountains heading straight towards their hideout. “Tony” he said.

“What the hell is he doing here?” Sam urged him to explain, but Steve only gave him a dumbfounded look and walked towards the entrance “get Scott and Wanda” he said. His friend gave him a skeptic look but nevertheless complied. And he was left to go see what this madman was up to now.

 

 

 

Tony was humming a tune to himself, helmet up so he could feel the breeze, he was also carrying a pretty large side bag, he almost missed the blonde running towards him “what the hell do you think you are doing here!?” He reprimanded him loudly.

Tony turned towards him with an innocent look “why I’m just paying you a visit!” He said and kept walking “come on cap, you said it yourself, I knew where you were a while ago, there’s no reason why we should be playing a cold war on each other. And if not just call this a diplomatic meeting.”

Steve sighed and was about to budge when the rest of the crew arrived, all suited up and ready to attack if he gave the order

“What the hell is he doing here!?” Said Scott

“That’s everyone’s question” was Sam’s reply

“I’m sorry I still really can’t for the life of me remember your name big guy” Tony teased him

“It might be what it comes down to…” he threatened

Wanda walked towards him, possibly to try and read his thoughts but Tony just moved his arm to signal for her to stop, careful to not make it look like a threat, since he did have a repulsor in his hand “how rude” he tilted his head to the side. And to pacify everyone’s expectant view he brought up his bag “I brought Shwarma!” He pointed out, grinning at the effect that had on Steve, whose antipathetic look had suddenly turned into pure and evident nostalgia. He loved that about Cap, the way his feelings were always so evident. That guy couldn’t tell a lie even if he tried, that’s what made him so fun to mess with.

He turned his whole body towards him, knowing that he was the most inclined to let him come over “I also brought you a new phone, because the one you gave me was from the stone age, appropriate for a fossil like you” he smirked and tossed him the new device “courtesy of Stark Industries, totally untraceable. The only model that exists in the world. It has big buttons since you always complain about them, a bigger screen and this one can actually send pictures and engage in phone calls, which in case you didn’t know is the whole purpose of a phone” he pointed out, knowing that this would shift everyone’s attention to the man. But to give him some credit, he handled it very well, keeping a stern look and not getting defensive, even though he was clearly blushing

“Is this what you always do? Use gifts and material things to earn people’s forgiveness?”

“I believe the word for that is drachenfutter”

Wanda burst out laughing at that, losing her previous composure, which only made Tony grin more at how successfully he was throwing them off balance.

He waited for Wanda to stop chuckling, but not enough for her own grin to disappear, and he took advantage of this crucial moment to act serious. He let out a sigh “you think I’ve come here to sabotage you when you are least expecting it right? I’d say that’s not my style but I doubt you would believe me” that wasn’t true, the two people who knew him well were buying it and the other two had no argument against what he said. But this wasn’t all about trying to persuade the group, he hadn’t come here for that.

“I wanted to show you this” he looked at Steve again. Dropping the cocky act and making sure he stared straight into his eyes, because he was about to do one of the hardest things he had ever done, and boy if he wasn’t going to make sure that Steve felt every bit of his pain.

He reached inside his bag carefully and pulled out a prototype of the captain America shield. It was nowhere near as glamorous or as efficient as the finished version; in fact it looked like a piece of junk that was barely kept together. It had multiple ray-like iron stripes and the star wasn’t even completed but he handled it very carefully, not wanting to break it with his metal gloves.

Steve was looking at him in shock, his eyes wide and his chest rising up and down fast, he didn’t look but he could feel everyone else’s eyes on him too.

“This…” he started, looking at it for a moment, displaying it for Steve “is a prototype of the original captain America shield. My father made it and I found it within his things a couple of years ago, while I was handling that whole radiation poisoning issue I told you about.” He let that sink in for a moment, barely blinking as he continued to look at the ocean blue of his interlocutor’s eyes. “in fact, thanks to this very model I was able to level the orbit system that I used to create the new element that replaced my old arc reactor, effectively stopping the radiation and…” he broke eye contact for a moment to look at it “saving my life.”

He could tell that Steve wanted to talk, dissuade him from what he was about to do, but he didn’t out of respect. And that was good because if he had, Tony would have punched him in his perfect teeth and blown up that facility. But after a long pause, he let out a small chuckle “with this thing, I also found a video that he had left for me. I guess it was the way in which he tried to make amends for the whole… being a terrible father thing, I just wish I had a chance to leave a message to him as well” his heart was beating hard enough for him to feel constricted inside his suit, but he took a deep breath, closing his eyes and willing himself to look at Steve again “I don’t think I have any use for it” he extended his hands carrying the shield towards him “and it wasn’t made for me either” he pointed out.

The air was so thick it could be cut with a butter knife, the five of them were silent and every pair of eyes was on Steve once again. He coughed and rubbed his face slightly, trying to shake off the uncomfortable feeling that was taking hold, and failing at it. “Wow Tony this is…” he took it in his hands, even more careful than the other was, but he wasn’t allowed to finish his sentence.

“Well who’s hungry?  Got some extra food since I didn’t know who was going to be here” He didn’t wait for anyone else as he just walked towards their not-so-secret hideout. After a second, Wanda and everyone else just followed behind him, taken aback by what they had just witnessed. It took Steve longer to move, however, as he just stared into the shield in awe, puzzled, because such an action didn’t fit with any of his previous ideas about who Tony stark was. And he knew better than to try to figure it out. That had never worked out when it came to this man.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Drachenfutter roughly translates to "dragon fodder" and it refers to a gift that a man gives to his girlfriend or wife to make up for a previous mistake. The reason why Wanda laughs is that it implies that Steve is Tony's angry wife.  
> Also In the comics at least some versions of Wanda speak german and idk I had to have someone get the joke for the whole concept to work, so yeah.
> 
> Also If you are wondering what that whole shield thing was about, i have a sketched out analysis of it but i will upload it as an alternate chapter simply because i don't think it has the same punch if i spell out the implications of this gesture for you. But if you really don't get it. I suggest you check it out. In it Tony reflects upon life and there's a hint of what he will do next.
> 
>  
> 
> As always, please leave a comment below. Your comments are particularly important right now because I don't know if i should add a Shwarma scene or just skip over that entirely, after that i plan to finally have Steve and Tony get romantic... So to speak, to be honest what i have in mind is less romantic and more... embarrassing.


	5. The piece that doesn't fit the puzzle.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Hello, as promised, here's the first of my extra chapters, I hope I can add plenty of them, a couple of you said you wanted the Shwarma thing, and I think I might give it a go, but to be fair I don't know much about the characters in it, Ant Man is the only MCU film I haven't watched (mostly just to spite my dad who is a six foot tall bearded mountain whose favourite superhero was always antman and really loves ABBA (yes my dad is totally the multi-bear) anyways, i might read up on some character analysis on these guys. I do really love Clint so I might have him show up for some contrived reason, who knows, I'm still a bit uncertain.

A brief analysis of the whole shield thing, to clear up some doubts, I highly recommend that if you think you got what that was about,then you shouldn't read it, but if you thought this was a "kiss and make up" or sort of a "being the bigger man" thing, you should probably check it out. Tony is not a bad guy, but he is not a beautiful angel either, and he is going to get meaner and meaner as we move along (which may or may not be justified), so you have been warmed.

http://archiveofourown.org/works/6828532


	6. A Brief Talk on Russians and Unicorns

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> There's an alternate Stony ending to this chapter, If that's what you prefer go read it at http://archiveofourown.org/works/6838144

Tony put the kettle on the fire, making himself at home in this new place, Shwarma had somehow been more awkward than that time in new York, so his stomach was rumbling a little, nobody seemed to really want to talk and Scott had stormed out in the middle of it, after he made a joke that he doesn’t even remember anymore. To be honest the only reason why it was taking place at all was that Steve kept glaring at everyone as if to say “you are going to stay and eat and you will like it” like the mother hen that he was. He didn’t expect much better nevertheless, and in all honesty, he also didn’t care about becoming best friends with anyone at that table. So some tea should be enough to cheer him up.

 “You don’t strike me as the type of person who drinks tea” Steve said behind him

“That’s because I’m not” he replied and paused for a moment, preparing the infusion and staring at the cup like it had all the answers in the world “Bruce really likes tea”

His voice grew somewhat somber “You miss him don’t you?”

“I miss a lot of things” he pointed out “Tea sort of grew on me, Bruce didn’t, I was a fan of him before I even met him, and when I did, I realized I had somehow managed to not give the guy enough credit even then”

Steve moved closer “Can I have some as well?”

 “Of course” he prepared a cup for him too.

There was a silent moment in which the two of them just focused on their cups

“What do you miss the most? About your time and all”

Steve raised his hands unknowingly and let out a soft, voiceless laugh “So many things…”his eyes diverted

“Oh, I know that look, you have something but you don’t want to say it because you think it will sound bad”

“What kind of pattern prediction led you to that?”

“None cap, you just are entirely transparent, come on, you know I won’t hold it against you”

He sighed “ok I miss… I miss the kind of war I was fighting. Back then the good guy was the one for freedom and the totalitarian regime murdering innocent people was the bad guy. And the war would be resolved by seeing who was stronger. Nowadays, there’s this whole underground system of relations and ideological grey areas, I don’t really have a strong concept to fight for anymore.”

“Ohh yeah you kind of missed the Cold War didn’t you? That was kind of a huge deal.”

He chuckled “I know I should be more interested in peace than the kind of war I prefer, but I can’t really bring myself to not be a little um… terrified by how sinister this new ordeal is.”

“Well yeah but, in your kind of war… one of us would have had to kill or kidnap the other, staying true to the spirit of the say it like it is, hands on the table idea”

“That’s completely different”

“Is it really?” he stiffened his shoulders and tilted his head back for a second, like he tends to do when he is skeptic about something “Isn’t this a power play?” he gestured with his hands

Steve was silent for a moment “why did you give me that shield? You don’t seem to be trying to build a wall in the middle of Germany”

“Well I could have given you the vibranium one, but I figured that, considering our current location, you would have no need for that particular one” he purposely skipped the question with a grin and waited a long moment basking in his frustration. “Do you know how power-play works? He left his empty cup on the counter to begin his explanation:

“There are a number of things I could say and do right now, that number is infinite, a super-cool concept with no empirical value. In the real world, nothing can be quantified as infinite. Everything is finite, the stars, the number of atoms in the galaxy; everything that exists within the realms of past and present is finite.”He made a pause to let that sink in before his eyes lit up as he continued “In the world of possibility, however, infinity does exist. But as we tried to predict which way things will happen, we chop down the numbers, there’s always a margin for error, because of that pesky infinity thing, but the current situation greatly limits our possibilities. So right here, right now, there are a number of things I would like to do that aren’t infinite. But that number itself gets chopped down because of the current power play in question.” He was twitching and moving his hands around even more than normal, clearly exited about what he was talking about.

“You know what limits my ability to act? You! Not because you are holding a pistol in your pocket, not because of the instant consequences of my actions right now. No. It’s because I have an interest in the way you act, which gives you a certain power over me. And in the same way, I have power over you because there are a number of things you want from me, knowing what the shield thing was about is one of them. And the things we can and cannot do are limited to each other. So amongst the possibilities that we have, we choose one of them hoping it will make us more powerful and less afraid. This has always existed Steve, these are the kind of confrontations that take place in diplomatic meetings. In the rear, with the gear. And the Sokovia accords were a possibility that we had that would make us less vulnerable to public opinion and the governments of the world. We would sign them with ink, not blood. You were right, this is not about ethics or morality, and it’s about power.”

“You have a surprisingly cynical way to see things”

Tony smirked “The cynic school of philosophy came from a group of guys who gathered around to live like homeless people, yell at the king and masturbate in public, if anything; I’m a nihilist, which is an entirely different concept”

“I didn’t know this was going to turn into a metaphysical/philosophical lecture”

“Why, are you finding it hard to keep up?” he teased him, an amused look on his face

“Bite me, Stark”

“Ohh that is well beyond the current realm of possibility”

“Why I thought those were infinite”

Tony had to admit he was a little impressed at that comeback, it wasn’t particularly witty or funny but it meant Steve had kept up with him 100% “Tempting cowboy but I’m going to have to decline the offer. I’m terribly tired anyways I should get some sleep, and you desperately need a bath” he walked out, really enjoying this new dynamic of dropping lines and walking away before Steve could respond.

 


	7. The Morning After

Tony woke up feeling refreshed and ready to get back to action. He took a shower, put on a clean set of clothes and walked out. Everyone was having breakfast already. He went to the kitchen to make himself some coffee “morning” he said and rest his body on the counter.

Steve greeted him with a genuine smile, Wanda muttered a salutation, not particularly biased in any direction, and the other two didn’t even say anything, still clearly distrustful. After a long, awkward silence he spoke up again “Hey Red, you know what I was thinking? It would probably be useful to study Loki’s magic some more, it would be good to create some kind of protection from it in case some other intergalactic baddie tries to take over the world. And I could really use your help.

She gave him a death stare “I am not going anywhere”

He walked over and sat on one of the white couches “Who said anything about you going anywhere? I would just need to drop by from time to time, I should ask T’challa first, but there’s no point in that if you are not interested in studying your powers.

She was thoughtful for a moment. Thinking about what Vision had told her. She did definitely want to understand her powers better so she could control them. But she wasn’t too keen on letting another person mess with her genetics again “What do you have in mind?”

“Well, I have a hypothesis. I think the mind control magic functions through a complex system of brain waves and electromagnetic reconfiguration. So with some Electroencephalography devices and a radio wave detector that I’m building, I would be able to study that hypothesis by simply looking at you do whatever it is that you do to when you do your thing”

She pursed her lips in thought for a second.

“I wouldn’t agree to that if I were you” said Scott

“you can say no and no hard feelings” he took another sip of his coffee “ im already working with vision and we are moving forward on that

“really?” she and Steve said in unison

“yup, so far, from what I’ve seen, every form of magic has been created by a system of electric waves and energy vibrations. This means that there are ways to counter and even replicate them”

“Wait, wait, you are saying there’s a way to stop Loki’s magic, for example?” He asked surprised

“Oh, yeah but I already knew that, back in New York, he tried to do to me the same thing he had done to Clint and he couldn’t, because my arc reactor somehow stopped his magic. Which means…” he paused with a smug face “Which means that the arc reactor technology I created was able to surpass an Infinity Stone”

He let that sink in for a moment “Anyways, take your time to think about it, just text me with Steve phone when you make up your mind” he said “I should be leaving now”

“I’m assuming you won’t tell anyone you found us here, right?” said Sam

“Of course not. Why would I?”

“Just checking” he said.

“Alright, then, I’ll be heading out now” he put his mug in the sink and turned to everyone, waving his hand in everyone’s general direction.

Steve walked over to shake his hand, which of course, Tony did, and then he headed out and called his suit on, flying away.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Hello everyone! I am so glad I finally got this chapter out. Now I get to get into the stuff I'm actually interested, Magic science! I wrote an Iron-frost fic years ago about this, so it will be interesting to study this again. I sincerely hope Thor:Ragnarok doesn't suck like Ironman 3 did, because i really want to bring Loki into this in a cool way, my hypothesis is that he will also be joining the Avengers to fight Thanos, I mean why not, Spiderman, Doctor Strange and Black Panther will be there, he has already joined Thor once, it wouldn't surprise me that he also joins in. In any case, by the time he and/or Dr Strange come into this fic, Tony will probably have this whole magic thing figured out. Some other things will have happened by then, but without giving too much away, I don't plan for Steve and Tony's truce to last much longer. (Don't worry though, there will be NSFW stuff before they fight again)


	8. Tony's Babies

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Whaat??? two chapters in a day!?!?!? yup, that's right. I like to surprise you that way. I've also decided that I won't make any extras about what is in Tony's mind for a while, although i think it's very obvious, it's gonna be super cool i promise. And smut is comic, wait for it, it's totally gonna happen soon. Also I'm going to rename this series, sorry for the confusion.

To say that the next few weeks were busy was kind of an understatement. Tony had been making a number of computer systems and radars in his lab, he had designed five different arc reactor systems and what else?... oh right! He had undergone surgery!

At the moment he was standing in his bathroom, looking at his naked frame in the mirror. The scar tissue covering his chest had turned now once again into a circular metal shape. This time however, it was much better. For starters, he didn’t _need_ the arc reactor, which means he had created a system to easily remove it. He had also designed a cushion system that would prevent damage to his heart if someone hit it. This new metal whole in his chest was also shallower and he had flattened his reactors accordingly. And finally, the walls were entirely closed, once again, making it less vulnerable.  He felt a bit nostalgic when he looked at it, and now that it wasn’t a weakness, he had to admit: it was pretty fucking cool.

He took a quick shower before heading downstairs again. He hadn’t tried the five reactors on himself yet.

The first one was very similar to his previous one, blue-ish white light, triangular shape, circular magnetic field, only an improved version of it.

The second one was not perfectly circular and in fact had multiple pointed edges, as well as a very bright, entirely white light, which caused friction and slowed down the current, but once he found a solution to that, he had a completely different magnetic rhythm, with the magnetic waves being curved instead of forming a simple circle.

The third one was conformed of three smaller reactors and a cell in the middle, which produced just as much electricity but had magnetic fields ten times stronger, just being near that one made him feel a little lightheaded, so he might run a few more tests with it.

The fourth one had a red light instead of the white one, it was smaller and had thick walls around it, because it was way hotter than the other ones, that made him feel a little anxious, if someone were to muster the power to somehow break the crystal, it wouldn’t defuse like the other ones, it would blow up, in his chest. But the magnetic field for this one was completely irregular because of the constant combustion inside of it.

The fifth one was yellow, it was very similar to the first one, but this one was attached to a system continuously spinning on the opposite direction to the ractor, which made it create twice as much power, and also look very hypnotic.

Today he was going to try on three of them. The third and fourth one still seemed to dangerous.

Another thing he was also working on was a skin-tight suit, similar to what he had done with his clock, he had something interesting planned.

Buzz… buzzzz…buuzzzz… It was Steve’s phone

“Wanda says she is in, she talked to T’challa and he said he is willing to offer his help in anything you need. Between you and me, he probably means vibranium. He will be calling you in about two hours, make sure you pick up”

“Thanks Cap” he replied and looked at his reactors… “In a moment, papa’s got work to do” he said and went to put on a shirt; he had to decide what he was going to say to him.


	9. In Other News: Tony Stark is becoming more like his dad

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Hey guys! I've gotten a couple of chapters together and I decided I will start to pace them so that there's a new chapter every two days, since exams are coming. Anyways, I will be writing a lot of downtime chapters, so please, leave a comment below and share your headcanons with me, i will post a list of guideline questions for you to give me your suggestions ;)

“Your highness”

Tony was sitting on his couch, wearing a black dress-shirt, he honestly didn’t want to look too formal but this was the only shirt that completely hid the new hole in his shirt, he should have gotten a beige lid so that it wasn’t so evident. Add it to the list.

“Mister stark” T’challa acknowledged him “I heard you have trespassed my property. In any other situation, this could have gotten you killed”

“I heard you are keeping five world wanted criminals within your property, in any other situation, this could cause a war.” He pointed out and made himself sit a bit straighter “which is why it’s good that we are in THIS current situation and not in any other” he said, generally pleased with his way of handling a direct threat from the king of Wakanda, only fidgeting slightly, and the body language diagnosis and training that he had implemented on Friday had helped him maintain a much better poker face, which was good with business, and was good with politics. The two things he used to think he’d never even try to get good at… and his father insisted he would, huh, how strange, and it only took several months of torture and over a dozen near death experiences…

“You are right” he smiled, clearly not interested in violence, so he had been testing him? Perhaps, he was going to need a lot more info to understand this guy though. “I’ve also heard you are not interested turning them over or in killing the winter soldier, and what is more, apparently you allowed them to escape.”

“I have” he frowned, getting even more uncomfortable and fidgety than before

“Can I know why?”Just because that was phrased like a question, it didn’t mean it was one, and not a demand. But Tony needed to be on his good graces, so he complied, knowing that he wouldn’t be able to lie to this guy

“I have seen what’s out there, it’s going to strike and it’s going to destroy us if we waste our time fighting each other.”

Tchalla’s eyes betrayed him. Tony must have looked like a conspiracy nut then, so he quickly rectified himself “I’m talking about Loki, and Thor, the alien army that attacked New York, and the world where they come from, I’ve seen it, when I was disposing of a nuke directed at the city. I thought I was going to die, but I didn’t.”

His skeptical look turned into pity and understanding soon enough, perhaps this man wasn’t as some cold and tyrannical as he had initially thought. “I understand. Is this why you are interested in Ms. Maximoff and her powers?”

“Exactly” he said a bit excitedly and had to bite his tongue to keep himself from blabbering on and on about how great it would be

“How can I be of assistance?”

“Oh, just give me a place to work in and I’ll bring in the gear” he suggested

“Very well, but you must transport it with my planes, that way I know we won’t be tracked”

“actually…” he pointed upwards with his finger “I have a better Idea, Stark industries will strike a very juicy deal with Wakanda, establishing an all new branch of the brand working there, it will generate employment and make your country move miles forward in terms of technological innovation, you know your technology has the potential to make Wakanda the new Sweden”

“I doubt you would go through all that trouble just to come in and out of Wakanda” he seemed even more skeptical

“I’m not talking about a t-shirt factory in China paying its people two bucks an hour; I’m talking about opening a research group, with its own team of researchers and control of the innovations and production. Your people won’t be leaving home to be sitting all day making cell phone cases; they will be walking into a business room in order to decide what the next product should be.”

“Forgive me if I intrude but, does this have anything to do with the between the expenses in Wakanda, because of our devaluated coin?”

“If that worries you, I can always sign an agreement to pay the exact same amount of money I pay in America, keeping up with inflation rates and all”

“Your generosity baffles me”

“I doubt it, since that would mean you don’t know your own country, Wakanda is a gold mine of technological innovation, especially within computer designs, the only place in the world with technology that even stands a chance against Stark Industries. Think about what we could do together if we let those worlds collide! I think I’m getting my money’s worth all things considered”

He was thoughtful for a moment “I heard many people say you are genuinely interested in what you do, but I believe I might have underestimated to which extent this is the case. You say you want to come to investigate the nature of magic, you say you want to strike a deal in order to investigate our technology, but I almost don’t believe it”

“Almost?” he raised an eyebrow confused

“Mr. Rogers said that when you created Ultron and later Vision, you were acting with the same idea in mind, from what I’ve seen, Mr. Banner as well, was quick to defend your genuine interest in science and innovation, and I believe that. But I am concerned, because of what I’ve seen, that you won’t be as focused on your intent when you start to spend days within the same building as the man who killed your parents.”

That hit him like a truck and he was silent for a moment, trying to create a coherent line of ideas “uhm… well I think… “He let out a chuckle “You know, let me tell you a story” he leaned forward “do you know who Obadiah Stane is? He was a friend of my father; he was like a father to me. And twice, he tried to kill me, the first time sending terrorists after me, and the second time ripping my life force out of my chest, and saying how much he hated me as I slowly died in front of him.” He begun “And then, when I got myself back together, he tried to kill me for a third time, that was when I killed him, sort of, technically Pepper did” he paused to catch his breath “when I came back, I had seen exactly who were the people who had been two-faced with me, and there were plenty of them, but I didn’t go on a murdering spree. Then I almost died of radiation poisoning, and around the same time, I almost died because a man who had mistakenly assumed I was responsible for the death of his family tried to kill me. I saw him in his cell, and I tried to explain the way things had gone, and when he tried to kill me again, I was trying to make him turn himself over, but he killed himself. More recently, I flew a nuke through a space vortex, like I said, and destroyed a mother ship, killing millions of aliens, and I almost died again. I spent months on the run with nothing, once again every thought I was dead, and I almost gave up this whole superhero thing. But I had a lot to do yet.” He let a long silence take place, not for dramatic effects but rather because re-living all of this wasn’t easy. “I think I have a track record of being a relatively chill guy, all things considered, and responding well to stress, wouldn’t you agree?”

The king gave him a searching look, pondering his decision “very well” he said finally “anything else you would have from me?”

Tony pursed his lips trying to remember “Oh yes! Almost forgot, I will need a small amount of vibranium that isn’t traceable to either one of us”

He frowned “How much?”

“Uhm, I’d say about 150 pounds”

“That doesn’t seem like much, it wouldn’t even be enough for one of your suits, what do you want with that?”

“Oh, vibranium is not a good idea for a body suit, it’s too heavy, it would waste too much power and there is no need to have a suit be that strong.”

“Then what are you making?”

 “A body suit” he grinned.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Ok, so here are the main questions i want your opinion on:  
> Which Avenger loves ASMR videos?   
> What is Tony's favourite album?  
> What kind of guy is Steve into? (assuming he is into guys like we think in this story)  
> What movie should everyone watch together?  
> What question game/drinking game should they play next?  
> Who is the next character you want to see in this story  
> And finally: What do you think Tony is up to?


	10. I Heard you liked Lemon

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> It's not length that matters, but how well it's used.   
> In other words, sorry this thing is so short but it is going to give way for FINALLY some smut. Now that Tony is staying in Wakanda, I can finally make them fuck, I will post that chapter in a couple of hours because I haven't actually written it :P   
> Please Leave a comment below, it will be very much appreciated, I take every suggestion into consideration and would love to hear your opinions, the amount of attention this has gotten for a cracky plotty fic with rated Teen and Up is pretty overwhelming guys, it makes me want to do much better. I love you guys!

The next month or so went by rather quickly; he found a way to make all of his reactors usable, created a better version of the magnetoencephalographer and worked on the blueprints for his next invention. He also studied Vision’s ability to walk through walls and found out that indeed, his abilities came from magnetic currents. This is why Clint’s electric wall managed to stop him. He also had been attending interviews and conferences. They were really banging the drums for this whole Wakanda-Stark Industries agreement, starting debates and making news for weeks, but finally, the entire thing came into fruition and he could finally take his toys to the foreign nation. In the end he had bought a house there and created an underground tunnel system to get to the so called “New Avengers”, this worked better because honestly, he was a little anxious leaving all of his stuff at Tchalla’s house.

The next day, he headed straight towards that same place “Good to see you again” he greeted Steve “Have you gotten thinner? That diet is really working out for you buddy”

“Was that whole spectacle necessary?”

“That whole spectacle, mister spandex, has made this the last place where anyone will be looking for you”

“Somehow, I don’t think that’s what you had in mind when you plotted this whole thing” he reprimanded him

“What can I say? When life gives you lemons….” He grinned, but his smile disappeared when he noticed Steve was still serious. “And god knows life’s given us plenty of lemons” he said and gave him a pat in the shoulder, walking towards the house “where’s everyone? I bet they can’t wait to see me”

He stopped Tony by grabbing him on the shoulder “am I being foolish to trust you?”

He looked straight into Steve’s eyes with just as strong a gaze as his.

After a while he let go of him, letting out a breath and averting his eyes.

“You can trust me” he said before walking into the house.


	11. Weird Science

“So I have to sit in that weird chair and let you two mess with my head? What could possibly go wrong with that?” said Sam sarcastically

“It’s an MEG; basically a set of magnets around your cuckoo, not too complex, is it?”

He turned to Steve “make sure you kick his ass if he does something weird”

Steve laughed “of course I will”

The MEG did look pretty scary; it was a white cushioned chair, with a big, dopey helmet attached to the top. They were between thick walls and a low roof, in a space barely big enough to fit the two of them, about two meters in length and one in width, with no lighting at all. In fact he wouldn’t have seen the chair if it wasn’t for the light that got in when they opened that side door that was just as thick as the walls. Apparently, Tony had connected one camera to pick up on the lights of her magic, one to pick up on heat signals, and the rest was more magnetic sensors to pick up on her power waves. Because of this, they had also had to put on these unflattering but impressively comfortable clothes that seemed to be made of some kind of silk, designed to not produce or block any magnetisms.

“Alright, Red, you have your instructions list “she nodded. Tony had given her a list with the different things she was going to make Sam do, varying from sneezing to winking and not going much further than that, he was going to do a sample test on him, hopefully scot, Steve and himself with all five arc reactors, but he was saving that for later because the high magnetic currents could fuck up his brand new MEG.

“Ok, start with action one” she nodded and put her hands around Sam’s head

“Actually hold up, do you have to put your hands around his head like that?”

“Well, not really, right now I don’t need to take him by surprise, I usually do that because it’s easier to channel all of people’s attention”

That makes sense, in that case, try to hold as much distance as possible, it helps my external MEGs pick up the signal better” He had actually design the MEG chamber to pick up on the magnetisms from his reactors as well, so it would be better to maintain all variables.

She nodded and complied. Number one was sneeze, she performed that action and right away, Sam sneezed.

Tony looked at his screens; his brain activity didn’t seem to change beyond normal ranges, like he had sneezed by chance.

“Repeat” he indicated, and she did, once again, all normal

“Action number three” he indicated, this time it was whistling, and Falcon did in fact start to whistle, but once again, his brain acted as if the idea had spontaneously occurred to him.

Everything alright?” said Steve, noticing his frustrated face “Oh, no, I’m just thinking... Action number seven” he told Wanda, and she made him visualize a very specific painting of a woman in a red dress that vision had made and he had altered to include varying degrees of detail, the MEG would be able to display that image on the screen. This took a bit longer; Sam first visualized a blurry image of the woman and the red dress, and kept modifying it through Wanda’s instructions. The brain activity diagram showed that it once again, acted like it had been Sam’s own idea.

He ruffled his hair, thinking “is that screen, really showing what he sees?”

“Absolutely, I perfected the system so the image is a perfect copy of what he sees, regular Megs don’t have this degree of accuracy” he said

“What is bothering you?”

He was about to dismiss Steve, under the idea that he wouldn’t understand the science talk, but he had kept up with him before, so he figured he might as well tell him

“The magnetic reports from Wanda’s stimuli have a slightly stronger wave rate than Sam’s thoughts, but his brain doesn’t seem to be picking up on that magnetic current”

“You mean the magic stops before it gets to his brain?”

“Ehh, sort of, it doesn’t really stop because it works”

“Ohh, and could it have something to do with that helmet thing?”

“I doubt it; the magnetic walls are in the chamber, not that scanning helmet”

Steve was thoughtful for a moment, Tony decided to just continue

“Action number ten” he told Wanda, who had been hearing their conversation and was looking at them.

Number ten was a photo of he had taken with Steve when they had gone jogging together, this one formed much quicker. “Any reviews so far?”

“The spooky chair is surprisingly comfortable” was what Sam said

“That last thing, I barely had to interfere” she pointed out

“Sam, are you trying to be cooperative with her ideas?”

“Uhhm, not that I’m aware of”

Tony was thoughtful for a moment.  “Try number 15” which was to raise both arms

Wanda did so and he raised his hands, once again, her interference could not be linked to him.

“Uhm, try number two with your hands around his head”

That was tapping on the armrest, which he did, and once again, wasn’t picked up upon.

He was becoming more and more frustrated, every test was going to give him the same result, it almost was like magic, but he wasn’t going to readily accept it so easily. Time to change the panorama. “Ok Wanda, look at your screen” he said and typed a message for her:

“I will ask Sam questions, I want you to make him contradict himself” She nodded and turned to Sam

“Ok, I will ask you some questions now, nothing too personal, don’t worry”

Sam nodded “no way!” he stopped and frowned confused, everyone else let out a laugh at that, this time, he could register a very faint interference.

“Sam, is this ok with you?”

“Uh, I’m not sure, yes, fine, I mean, no wait, what kind of questions will you ask me?”

“Blonde or brunette?” he spat out without thinking too much

“Uhmm blonde, I think, I mean brunette, In any case it’s fine either ways”

Tony looked at the screens and noticed something strange into the projector of what he was seeing. “Ok, hold on buddy” He deactivated the microphone and replayed the scene, when he first saw it, there were flashing images of both a blonde and a brunette girl, but for a single moment, Wanda was there using his powers on him, which couldn’t be just something he saw because he was blindfolded “damn” said Steve

“Damn” Tony echoed and activated the microphone again “What’s 15+7”

“22, wait no, that can’t be right, uhm, 23”

Tony frowned “Why?”

He was really having trouble thinking “because they are both odd numbers”

And once again, the screen showed a list of numbers and then there were the number’s five and seven surrounded by red statics very similar to Wanda’s

“Right, well is this question thing, alright with you?”

“What?”

“I’m going to ask you some questions, is that alright with you?”

“Sure, I guess”

“Ok, Wanda, give me your testimony”

“uhm, well for the first question, he thought yes right away and I made him doubt, second question he hadn’t made up his mind and I fist made him think blonde, then brunette, and for the math question I made him first discard the idea of it being 22 altogether, but when you asked him why, I had made up a reason”

He nodded “well, this is interesting” he took some notes “Steve, why don’t you hold the mic for a moment, start some lively chat, whatever”

He wrote something down for Wanda “do you point anywhere when you are trying to play with people’s head?” she shook her head, Steve and Sam had started to talk about yesterday’s menu and make some small talk.

“Ok, I need you to try and make him think Steve is rude and passive aggressive to him” she nodded again

Tony checked his screen, laughing at the friendly talk about food that suddenly became about falcon’s BMI and how condescending and patronizing Steve always is, but what was really spooky was the brain activity and the images, he was seeing Steve and reading a different body language, imagining cruel facial expression and his eyes fully red, his stress levels were going up and this time, it seemed as though he was reacting to the real deal. “Ok, ok stop” he said “that’s enough red, I’m turning off the receptors, help him out and explain everything to him

“Hey stars and stripes, you might want to take a look at this” he showed him the video, thinking about the implications of this whole thing “I won’t lie, that’s pretty scary”

Tony nodded “I have a new theory”

“What is it?”

“I think Wanda’s magic doesn’t head straight at the mental functions but rather creates a series of stimuli that make him come to that conclusion, it makes sense, since our brain pretty much only does what it does, react to multiple external stimuli”

“I think I got a little lost there” he admitted

“Have you seen inception?”

He nodded excitedly, always getting very happy when he knew what people were talking about “I have!”

“Ok, well in inception, they have to get to his subconscious and plant a strong idea within Mr. Hottie’s head. It follows principles of hypnosis, and this has been more or less scientifically backed, reach a level of abstraction high enough and the biggest, most specific and meaningful idea can easily be planted into your head by simple integration of its concept, skipping plenty of logical barriers.” He paused, worried he might have been talking to fast, but after a second, Steve nodded “Ok, well that works because the guy is in a deep state of dreaming, making him vulnerable to manipulation, if he were awake, that wouldn’t have worked, so what She is doing is the opposite process, she spreads little hints that can be quickly accepted by the logical barriers and would naturally lead to the conclusion she wants, it’s tricky.”

Steve nodded “what does this mean”

“She is changing his perception of reality, is what I’m trying to say”

“I know! I meant, what does this... imply? In regards to what you are trying to do”

“Well, for one, I will need to run more tests than what I had planned, on the other hand, it doesn’t change much when it comes to how to stop it since its still magnetic waves.”

“So you were right?”

“I was right but I was also wrong, that’s usually how science goes” he chuckled. “Hey, great work both of you” he turned to Wanda and Sam “was that too rough?”

He chuckled “nah, I’ve had worse, try to have an argument with my mom” he joked. Tony laughed and pat his shoulder “Hey, Steve, sorry about a moment ago”

He shook his head “Don’t worry man”

Tony grinned “Red, how are you feeling?”

She shrugged “I’m well enough, do you need to run some more tests? “Yup, I want to test out your telekinesis, but if you are too tired it’s alright”

“No, don’t worry, I’m perfectly fine”

He looked at her for a moment “actually, you know what? I think it would be better if you tell me a bit about how you do the things you do, let us just have a chat about it, what do you think? I’m dying for some hot coffee”

She was thoughtful for a moment and then nodded with a small smile “great let’s go” he said and walked out.


	12. The Delicate State of Peace

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Ok so like i said, here are the stony alternates, you'll be seeing the story progress faster in it, so at the end of it i will post as link to the same point in this timeline. http://archiveofourown.org/works/6916687/chapters/15778315

In a week, it was going to be a year since the day the Sokovia accords passed, one year since the hero registration act, time flies, he said he wasn’t going to be a part of any ceremonies or anything, on the basis that he had a lot to do in Wakanda, which was an obvious lie, but that was alright. He wanted to be perceived as the guy willing to compromise, not the tool of big government, he wanted to stay somewhat true to his idea of successfully privatizing world peace, after all. Besides, the Sokovia accords hadn’t exactly changed much, generally, it was the same as with SHIELD, The Avengers were called to assemble, and they saved the day, pretty much the same as before, but under the sunlight now. Not that he didn’t know Steve had a point and eventually he was going to stop getting the right orders, he didn’t trust SHIELD, and he didn’t trust these people either. That being said, this delicate diplomatic relationship was very important, because generally, they all seemed to gloss over the whole runaway superheroes thing. It made sense, Cap and his group were laying low, Clint was retired again, and things seemed to be in a very delicate state of peace. Tony knew this wasn’t going to last though, and this is why he was dedicating so much time to getting prepared for what’s to come.

He had yet to try the arc reactors, but he found that Wanda’s telekinetic fields were terribly strong, they busted his MEG the moment he tried to scan them. So he made a new one. He was getting around understanding Wanda’s powers much better, Scott even had agreed to get tested, and so had Steve, it generally had the same effect on everyone. He was ready to try some duplicating, however, he decided that the mind control thing felt just a bit too Orwellian and he would rather not produce something like that, he felt like he was about to invent the atom bomb all over again. But there was also another problem, a big one.

He remembered the technology he wanted to develop in college, designed to remove traumatic experiences, and the potential for that invention to actually work, and for the potential use he could find for it… It made him sick to the stomach to even think about it, it almost felt like god was cruelly playing with his destiny, like he had just stumbled upon this solution by accident, to force him to be the one who solved this problem.

It was going to take him a while to come to terms with that one.


	13. Sleepover?

Tony was rolling over his bed, as usual, he had a hard time falling asleep and when he did sleep, his dreams would spill him right back out into the real world, and it was frustrating. At about five: am, he just gave up and got up to find something to do, he decided to text Steve for shits and giggles and then moved on to something else, science, of course!

-Ok so I have to ask, does the spandex chap your thighs and you just ignore it like a champ or what? Because those pants didn’t look very comfortable when they comically stretched down.

-There’s a reason why I quickly ditched them in favor of real pants- he replied almost instantly

-cap! you are awake

-Yeah, my sleep schedule refuses to adapt

-how fitting, good to know you adapted your pants though

-The spandex was not even supposed to be used for combat, after a certain point they relegated me to be this sort of advertisement figure, and that’s when I got the whole costume, I didn’t design it myself obviously, and well, there was spandex involved.

-lovely story

-What about your suit, it can’t be comfortable to walk around strapped to 400 pounds of metal, aren’t you afraid it will malfunction?

-of course not! I am never afraid of my own work… well except for that one time it was used to try to kill me in the middle east… or that other time when this guy stole it and used it to try to kill me… or that other time wth the Russian guy ho replicated my technology and used it to try to kill me, or the AI that I created that tried to kill everyone… ok, I’m not really helping my case, but when it’s being used for me and not against me, I 100% trust it, it’s not going to springtrap me in FNAF style, don’t worry, it has a filtering system.

-Um... What?

-oh, nothing, it’s an indie horror game, pretty creepy, lot’s of jumpscares.

-Oh.

-wanna come over? Let’s play another game!

-Has it ever crossed your mind that you might have a problem with alcohol?

-of course not! I have several problems with alcohol.

-Ok I’m going over, but no drinking, ok?

He was reluctant but finally replied

-you better be pretty darn entertaining then.


	14. Sleepover!

Steve made his way over to Tony’s house, the tunnels were a little bit unsettling if you went through them alone, but once he got there, he made sure to put up a bold face. Lately, he found more and more that he was acting tough whenever Tony was present, it was strange, but he felt that they were going right back to New York, and all the years they had spent getting over their differences had meant nothing, and he would be a hypocrite if he didn’t take at least part of the blame for it. But he was just trying to do the right thing, and he knew that Tony was too.

After all these years, it had really downed upon him just how much a personality like his really affected him. It wasn’t that Tony was particularly bold and eccentric, even if there was a grain of truth in that. But rather, Steve hadn’t really had a presence like that since Bucky, and never before that. He had realized that he liked it better when everyone’s eyes were on someone else. He never wanted all the attention that being Captain America got him, he was just a kid from Brooklyn, so to have this magnetic personality near him gave him a bit of a break was quite a relief. Once he stopped feeling threatened by the man, he found a way to get accustomed to this dynamic that they had going on. Tony was probably the only person who would dismiss and sometimes even ridicule him, many hated him but no one had treated him in quite that way. He simply couldn’t care less about him… which is the way everyone treated him pre-serum more or less. He figured it could just be that when he was around, he knew it was based on a genuine feeling, a genuine idea of who he was, he wasn’t awestruck by the lore or the effects of the serum. He just treated him like some other guy he met, and it was such a relief.

 

“Hey cap, how’s it hanging” Tony greeted him, rearranging the gears on his MEG.

“Don’t you ever take a break?” He laughed awkwardly, feeling more discouraged now than before

“This **_is_** my break, doing anything else is where the real work is.” He said without averting his eyes

“What’s the problem?”

“There’s not really a problem, I’m just calibrating it for a different purpose”

“And what purpose might that be?”

“Sorry, can’t say” he still didn’t look at him

“You can’t be seriously saying that”

“you said you would trust me” he pointed out “I’m not doing anything funny, I’m just dealing with an extremely delicate subject that I’d rather not bring  into light if it’s proven not to work, it’s a bit of a sensitive issue”

He let out a sigh “of course” He was starting to become weary of the wall thickening between them. “Will you keep on doing that while I watch or have I not come here for nothing?

“I wouldn’t call it nothing, I’m not drinking now. Here’s an idea, let’s play Never Have I Ever again!”

“Why? It pretty much boils down to: –Tony has you done this thing?  -Why, yes I have, of course, what about you Steve, have you done that thing –No Tony, I can’t say I have” his impression of him was pretty good and it made him crack up

“Alright, alright, then, Never _Would_ I Ever?”

“I pass, not the imaginative kind”

“Very well, Truth or Dare it is! You start” he still hadn’t looked at him once

“Truth”

He stopped his work for a moment, seemingly thinking of a question “How often do you masturbate?”

“TONY!!” He was about to walk away but then he let out a sigh and sat on a comfy couch next to him “Not too often, I don’t really think about that very much”

Tony nodded “Truth”

“Uhm, did you ever want to hum… be with an Avenger?”

“I think the real question here is did I ever not” he chuckled “I never really stopped to give any of it any serious thought, though, what with… one of them being a Norse god, the other two being deadly assassins, a guy I spent most of my childhood and teenage years hating, and a man who turns into a green rage monster whenever he’s too excited, I’d say there’s only room for fantasy fuel in that situation”

“Is that a common thing for you? To just… want to sleep with everyone you meet?”

“Well not EVERYONE!” He defended himself childishly, even giving a little pout “Truth or dare?”

“Truth”

“Have you?”

He bit his lip for a moment, knowing lying would only make things worse because Tony already said he thought Steve was transparent “Yes.” He simply responded and after a short silence, that Tony didn’t break at all, he resumed “Truth or Dare?”

“Dare”

“I dare you to stop that and actually look at me!” He said a bit louder than he intended, he didn’t want to come across as needy.

“Alright, chillax” he put his tools on the side and sat on another couch next to him “Truth or Dare?”

“Dare”

“I dare you to touch your nose with your tongue”

“I am not doing that”

“Yes you are!”

“No I’m not!”

“It’s the rules of the game! You gotta!”

“No! I probably won’t be able to do it anyways.”

“Ok then, take your shirt off”

“What?”

“Well when you can’t do the dare or refuse to respond to a question, you take a piece of clothing off to make up for it”

Steve thought about it for a second, but then decided that he honestly couldn’t care less about losing a shirt, so he took it off and left it on the couch’s armrest, pretending he didn’t notice the way Tony failed not to stare and trying his darn hardest to keep the grin from spreading all over his face as a result, but maybe he did have a point, and although he could spot a faint blush, now, once again, the guy was in control of the situation, as always, god that irritated him.

“Truth or dare?”

“Dare” he leaned forward

“Do 30 lizards” he grinned

“How cruel of you, to take advantage of an old man like that!”

“I’m older than you!”

“And you also have superhuman metabolism”

“Pfft, you are just lazy”

“Maybe”

“Well then, take off your shirt”

“Of course I’m…” he stopped himself mid sentence, and also in the middle of unbuttoning his top, letting out a small whine “do I really have to do this?”

Steve didn’t miss that, he was hiding something “I know you well enough to know you don’t have body image issues” the light-hearted mood was quickly stumped down by the rising tension, especially because of how utterly devastated Tony looked, he couldn’t have kept it to himself if he tried “Tony?”

The millionaire rubbed his face and stood up “I’m tired, I think I’ll actually go try to get some sleep”

“You are not going anywhere” he said firmly, standing up as well

Tony ignored him and tried to walk past him but the blonde just grabbed his shirt and ripped it open, letting the buttons fly in all directions and displaying the newly installed arc reactor and its coverage lid.

He stared at it for a second, before looking up at Tony confused

“Don’t worry, I’m not dying” was the first thing he said

“Yeah you better not be!” He said, letting out a stressed out breath “What... What... Why??”

“Well… I sort of…” He struggled to find his words “I don’t even know really, I just, suppose it was part of the whole… coming to terms with certain things situation and… well, remember my theory about Wanda’s powers?” Steve briefly nodded, still giving him a stern look “well, the one time when she could get into my mind… I didn’t have my arc reactor with me, and I think if I’d had it, she wouldn’t have been able to do much.”

“You are not telling me the whole truth”

Tony sighed “no, I’m not” he looked down.

Steve wanted to punch him right now, why was it always like this? “Tell me why I’m not punching your face through that wall again”

“Because, I’m too irresistibly charming?” He tried.

“You want me to trust you, but you don’t trust me enough to tell me what you are up to”

“It’s not you I don’t trust”

“What do you mean?”

He let out a frustrated growl “I’m talking about your emo boyfriend, remember him? The one who killed my parents? Yeah, that one” Stave looked at him in complete and utter shock and confusion, he was about to repeat the fact that Bucky was in cryogenic sleep when Tony continued “when I was a teen, working in MIT, I had this project idea for a reconfiguration program that could erase memories of traumatic experiences, the backing it needed was tremendous, and honestly they were right not to want such technology to exist… but, with Wanda’s magic, the prospect is entirely different, I can easily reconfigure my equipment into creating a scanning leveled situation and that could potentially mean…”

“He can be cured” Steve finished, his mouth agape “You would do that?”

“Believe me, the prospect doesn’t sound thrilling. It would require tons of effort, hours upon hours of work, and probably a huge amount of time witnessing disturbing images that come straight out from your buddy’s nightmares. But hey, in the name of science, saving the world and all that fun stuff, I guess I can make some compromises here and there”

“this would be… much more than a compromise” he was at a loss of words, Tony giving him his father’s pen to sign the accords was something he perfectly understood, the man very often use some kind of token or present as a symbol that he was serious, he assumed it was because of how little value he attributed to words, not surprising for a man who grew up surrounded by two faced people. He only trusted tangible things, so it would make sense that he would put so much value in items rather than genuine-sounding words, after all, in his world, words could be crafted and modified to lie and manipulate, he was starting to think that Tony had adapted better to that world than he let on.

The shield thing puzzled him more, not so much for the token itself, but rather because it was such a humble gesture, it seemed very grounded and much more genuine than his previous ones. And that was saying something because he had learnt that if Tony Stark gave you a gift, it was his heartfelt way to show you that you were important, he didn’t just give you some expensive thing he owned, he selected or designed it himself, either creating a unique, personalized thing that only you had, or picking something of high personal value and giving it to you.

This, however, wasn’t a little gift, a token or a symbolic present, this was a very real, very demanding thing he was going to do, and he just couldn’t understand what could possibly encourage him to do this.

“Yeah, it would be” he agreed

“Why are you doing this?”

Tony just shrugged “I’m not stupid enough to think no one is going to bring him out of that tube eventually, wouldn’t want to have to deal with that again”

“and putting a bullet in his head isn’t’ an option”

“What would that solve? You would hate me, this frail, sort of peace thing we have would be over, I say goodbye to my magic investigation, the Wakanda deal, lose face with The Avengers, as well as the people responsible for the accords, and I could even start a hot or cold war, all for what? Getting rid of one fucked up little fossil. I’d say it’s not worth it”

“I’d say that’s rationalization”

“Hey, you are probably right, but either way, it changes nothing.”

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> UPDATE!   
> Next chapter I think I'll have Tony try the Arc reactors, after that, emo baby is gon b back! Because frankly, I don't think anyone can look me in the eyes and tell me that they hadn't purposely set out the fact that Tony had an idea for trauma erasing technology just so that he could be the one who fixed bucky.  
> Also, no one responded to my questions :( please do! Especially because I want to know what pairs to do next, TonyxBucky or StevexBucky.
> 
> I'll repost my questions here:  
> Which Avenger loves ASMR videos?   
> What is Tony's favourite album?  
> What movie should everyone watch together?  
> Who is the next character you want to see in this story


	15. Rufus

Hit it, Red!

Tony gave his Arc reactor a little pat. This one was called Bill, he what the triangular one. On the lab, sitting in their own cases, were the other four. The star shaped one was named Stella, the triple one was Orion, the red one was Rufus and the yellow, spinning one was Melanie.

He was shirtless on his MEG chair and Wanda nodded, and worked on it. He felt a slight tingling sensation but nothing seemed to happen. “Uhm? Was that supposed to happen?”

 “Nope, try action two” Steve called from the control room, he and Wanda were the ones who designed the list under his instructions, and although Tony was a bit reluctant to trust Steve to conduct this experiment, without Bruce or Natasha around, he was the one he trusted the most to do a good job.

But once again, nothing happened “Steve?” Tony questioned

“Uhm, the screen isn’t showing me anything”

“Which screen?” he pressed

“None of them, all activity remains normal!”

He let out a sigh, what a moron

“HEY!”

“Just, look at the magnetic recordings of the room! What do you see?”

“Right now it’s all normal, uhm… Wanda, action… five?”

She complied, but Tony couldn’t really tell

“Wow”

“Wow?” Tony asked

“Try number seven” nothing happened

“You are probably going to want to see this, Tony, should keep on running tests?”

He thought for a moment “No, I’ll remove my arc reactor and I want you to try those same actions, try to compare it to our previous information”

Steve nodded and Wanda opened the door, walking out so Tony could go put the reactor in his case. Wanda looked at him “I was wondering why you don’t try to run tests of how my brain works”

Tony turned to her “Would you be alright with that?”

She nodded “Why not? You did it to everyone else in the base”

He shrugged “Yeah, but you have a specific story with experimentation that they don’t have. And my MEG is not designed for you. From what I’ve seen, your mental activity is fundamentally different from a regular person’s I’m afraid it could make it burst and what’s more, that it might hurt you.”

“Hurt me?” she raised an eyebrow

He nodded “the SQUIDs that I use to perceive the magnetic currents are made of niobium, cooled to absolute zero with liquid nitrogen. It’s a superconductive element. and the way this works is that it is attracted to the weak magnetic currents generated by the electric activity on the brain. For the average human it’s a magnetic field of 10 fT, but my guess is that your brain cause a stronger pull, which means that the MEG could go haywire and the little bits of niobium might shoot towards you, now, the frostbites would be a problem, but what I’m worried about is the possibility of it having an effect on your brain activity, it’s a far reach, but the possibility is there”

“But that would require a massive current” She pointed out

“You move things with your brain! I believe it’s a reasonable possibility” He pointed out.

It was a fair point, so she didn’t say anything. Tony let out a sigh, understanding why she would want to have her brain scanned “Baby steps, ok? We are barely scratching the surface of what you can do and how it works. We’ve been working for two months, with very little people involved in it, believe it or not, this is moving as fast as it can possibly go.”

“It makes you uncomfortable” She said “What I can do, it scares you, it scares everybody”

He bit his lip, she was right “Well I’m glad it’s you who has them, you have a better sense of self control than most people. I don’t even have any spooky powers and look at all I’ve done” he removed his arc reactor, letting out a shiver, feeling vulnerable without it, he wondered if he was ever going to get used to having that hole in his chest.

“You also made that” she pointed out.

He nodded, feeling a cold shiver down his spine “We’ll get around it, I promise” he put the reactor safely in its case. “Sunlight is the best disinfectant, the more we know about this, the less… terrifying it will be for everyone, including you”

She smiled “thank you”

 “Don’t thank me until I’ve actually done anything, we got a long way to go.” He let out a chuckle “But, in a little time, I think you will be able to make something like this too”


	16. A Kiss with a Fist

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> A quick correction:  
> I made a mistake when describing Melanie and Orion a couple of chapters before. Since electric current and magnetism are generally correlative, it doesn’t make sense for Orion to generate stronger magnetic fields but just as much electric power or for Melanie to do the opposite, so I corrected it. Melanie generates stronger magnetic fields AND electricity, and she is the one that made Tony dizzy. Orion simply generates a different pattern, like Rufus and Stella.

It had been two weeks since he started testing the arc reactors. He examined them vaguely and then continued to test them out in the open without his MEG, Melanie and Rufus hadn’t even made it into the MEG, they created magnetic fields that were too powerful for that. He had noticed that although all of them successfully stopped her from mentally manipulating him, there were several differences between them.

Bill functioned by neutralizing the electric current, it turned the specific delicate fields of energy and absorbed it into his current. Melanie did the same but in a bigger scale, which enabled her to also stop her telekinesis, when Wanda was holding a spoon and directing it towards him, it immediately fell to the ground once it was close enough. Rufus was a Terrible idea, Tony decided to bench him altogether, it was too dangerous and irregular, things would fly on all directions if intercepted by him while Wanda was making them levitate, and the effects it had in transforming Tony’s thoughts were frankly disturbing. An order to sneeze could turn into a scream or explosive laughter, and they varied each time, and in an occasion Wanda tried to make him picture a similar image to the woman in the red dress, and instead he saw a terrifying shadow figure. Orion seemed to have the same effects as Bill but at a close distance, it also caused a white spark before the red light was extinguished and the spoon fell. Finally, Stella was Tony’s favorite, like Orion, it stopped telekinesis near him, but at a distance it already caused some turbulence, also, it looked beautiful.

He had also filled Wanda in on what she was planning to do about Bucky. She was happy to help although at first she had been a bit skeptical about Tony’s interest in helping him. Not that it mattered too much; the idea of doing something so important to help someone was something she craved. After that, Tony spent a while studying Psychiatry and getting around mental conditioning. But there was something he couldn’t really get around, Bucky’s PTSD itself.

It was impossible to get him to sit in a tiny dark room with a machine over his head and actually relax into a state of mental abstraction without doing something to suppress the impending panic. It didn’t even matter if he tried to stand it. And Tony didn’t want to dose him because that could potentially make things even worse. So the solution and what he decided was to do everything as Bucky slept. He would be carried to that room and the first thing that they would tackle is the fear of small dark places.

If he was honest with himself, he really didn’t want to look at his dreams, he couldn’t even imagine the horrors he must see. And on a subconscious level, it was much harder to spot these elements that needed to be erased, but he would first just watch his dreams a couple of times

 

At the moment, he walked towards the room in which Bucky was. Steve was with him along with a doctor who disconnected the machine. When he opened his eyes, Steve immediately wrapped his arms around him. Bucky’s eyes closed again immediately, shutting tightly. After about a minute, they let go of each other, Steve moved back and smiled at him.

Bucky was smiling as well, and so was Tony, but the moment in which he noticed the third man in the room, his smile disappeared and he entered a state of panic, only furthered by the punch he received on the face, throwing him to the ground in the weakened state he was in, the poor man crawled backwards.

“Tony!!! Why did you do that!?” Steve reprimanded him horrified, kneeling on the ground and wrapping his arms around him softly.

“I’m pretty sure I have the right do that” he said with a satisfied grin, his knuckles were bloody and so was Bucky’s mouth, and in truth, Tony suspected he might have hurt himself almost as much as he had him, but he didn’t mind, with everything he was about to do for this man, he figured he deserved to get off the hook with a couple of things.

Bucky was in a panic state but Steve tried to calm him down “It’s ok, he is not going to try to hurt you. We woke you up because he might have a way to help you”

Understanding seemed to shine in his eyes and he clung to his friends, his eyes getting flooded with tears. Steve gave tony a severe look “You need to go”

He nodded “fair enough” and walked out, still wearing a pleased grin on his face, without any regrets.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Tehehe, I told you, Tony is going to pretty darn cruel to Bucky, he is only going to get worse with time too, the more work he puts into finding him a solution. I might make a reflection point from his perspective in the future, but I don't want to make the story too Tony-centric. So I don't want to give him a new POV reflection until Bucky and Steve get one.


	17. Wake me up Inside

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Just a weekend quickie, I should study, but i'm kind of going through a terrible depression, I don't know if i'm going to go take any tests, but I wanted to keep this story going since it's one of the few things I still enjoy doing. Sorry the latest chapters have been so short, I'll try to do better next time.  
> The next two chapters will probably introspective ones on Steve and maybe Bucky. Or maybe I'll wait until Tony destroys his morale a bit more before I give him a chapter. I also think I might channel my frustration about abusive and toxic personalities in my house by making Tony act not only cruelly but also abusively, but I'm not sure. That could open an interesting door with this whole "Tony is becoming more like his father" thing, but it might be just a tad too grim.  
> Please leave a comment telling me what you think. With 7000 hits, 160 kudos and 50 subscriptions, one would think i'd have more than ten comments, please guys, even if I don't use your ideas, very often they make me think of what I end up doing.  
> FangirlFlapdoodle was the only one who commented after my latest questions thread, she said she wanted to see more Bucky and Tony, so that's the pair I'll do first. Eat your heart out Stucky shippers, maybe you should have let a comment ;P jk I love you guys, even without commenting this is one of few things holding me together.

Bucky had been back for a bit over an hour. Steve had been next to him through that time, he had a blanket wrapped around him and the blood from his lips cleaned. He hadn’t spoken, but now he turned to his friend and cleared his throat, this caught his attention.

“Hello” he smiled weakly.

Steve let out a sigh and his smile returned to his face “Hey Buck!”

“How long has it been?”

“About a year”

He nodded “And you said he found a solution?”

He frowned, his shoulders rising a bit “We are not sure, he is very confident on his technology, but not so certain about what state your mind is in.”

He nodded “But there’s a chance”

“There’s a chance”

“And you trust him?”

He thought for a moment “He is an idiot, but I don’t think he would double face me”

The brunette let out a breath “Welp! Sounds like it’s not going to be a nice couple of days” he laughed nervously

“I’ll talk to him; he has no right to treat you this way”

“Doesn’t he?” He tilted his head “I killed his parents”

“That wasn’t you; that was what they did to you. And he will get to kill _that_ man”

“If I’m not too broken” he pointed out

“You are not” he said with certainty

Bucky was silent for a moment before finally speaking again “You never give up, do you?”

“Never” he grinned “I don’t believe in lost causes”

He nodded “thank you, for believing in me”

“You believed in me” he shrugged “Are you hungry?”

He chuckled “I could eat a whole cow”

“Ha ha, alright, let’s go get you something to eat”


	18. Language!

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Just as short as the previous one if not shorter, sorry for that! I'm really down in the dumps, it doesn't help that this fic is about to get five time more depressing than it was at the beginning.

He hadn’t seen Tony in the whole day, probably because he was at his house. He wanted to talk to him, but he didn’t really know how to bring it up. Knowing that this was a delicate subject, he gave him one whole day to calm himself down before messaging him.

“Can I come over?”

“Just you. Don’t expect a big reception” that was encouraging.

He made his way over and again found him working on his lab, he wasn’t fixing the MEG this time, but instead, was modifying the chair itself to create a gliding system, he was wearing headphones, but the music was loud enough for him to hear it from the door. He had a black thin tanktop on that was very transparent; it also showcased his arc reactor in near perfect detail. Long, ripped baggy jeans that were barely held up with a leather belt too. He was sweating, covered in grease and every imaginable kind of dirt. The sight shouldn’t be as appealing as it was, It occurred to him that Tony was surprisingly fit considering his age and terrible, terrible lifestyle.

“Uhm..  knock knock?” he said

Tony turned towards him “oh, hey!” he made a waving gesture with his hand and got back to work

He sat on a bench and waited for another minute before talking again “Would you mind taking off your headphones for a moment?”

He did so but let them hang over his neck “What is it Cap?” He didn’t look at him

“Well, it’s about the other day”

“What about it?”

“What about it?! You punched Bucky in the face right after he woke up from cryogenic sleep for a year!”

“Oh, that” he said nonchalantly

“Are you going to continue on being such an _asshole_!?” He huffed indignant. He had been mad at Tony before, but never as angry, frustrated and pain as now.

The man in question turned off his machine and mp3, looking at him agape.

He sighed and continued “Look, I know this is hard for you, and I really appreciate what you are doing for him… both of us do... but it would be nice if you didn’t… further traumatize him while you are it”

There was a long silence between them. Eventually Tony spoke again “I make no promises”

“Thank you” he smiled softly

“I said I make no fucking promises!” he replied irritated and turned his mp3 back on “now help me lift this thing up, I only got two hands and didn’t bring all my helping hand robots”

“Of course” he walked over and lifted the chair up for tony to have an easier time calibrating the base sensors.  
  


**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Hey guys! You know what I really want to write? Ironfrost!!! That pairing is one of my favourite things in the world, I am also very hooked with Game of Thrones. So I'll write a GOT crossover. Taking place in the wall, where a bunch of Avengers ended up for various reasons, and I'll probably have some fun with Loki, since I haven't really gotten a chance to talk about him in this fic. It might lift my mood up a little... or make me get even more depressed, who knows?


	19. Steve is a worried mom

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Well this fic is depressing as hell right now, so i'll pair my updates in it with updates in my new Game of Thrones AU one that I will probably use to have some fun with the characters that haven't made it here yet. I mean, Loki being secretly a White Walker is too perfect, and a lot of my plans for other characters are fitting as well. So I'll have some fun with that. Probably following a similar system to the one I have here, with one main storyline and several alternative pairing/explicit scenes alongside it.  
> Check it out here: http://archiveofourown.org/works/7080835

He knew that Tony wasn’t going change his attitude; he knew that he was only going to get worse as he got more frustrated with Bucky, and he was worried.

“You don’t look too happy to have your friend back” said Wanda

Steve turned to her “Well, I think he was better of frozen, that might be why”

“Why didn’t you talk o Sam about this?”

He shrugged “I did, he just told me that I should stop worrying because he will be fine”

“He is right, you know?”

“Yeah, I guess so. But still, he’s been through enough.”

She sat on the couch next to Steve “So have all of us”

He looked at her “Sorry, I didn’t mean to sound insensitive”

“And you didn’t, the majority of us were made to be weapons, regardless of whose team we served. No questioning the authority just executing commands. And we all grew out of that.”

“Yeah…”

“What’s the worst thing that can happen?”

“Uhm… that it breaks him? Beyond repair?”

“Do you think he would let that happen?”

“He is not in control of it, or himself, I believe he is strong but this could be beyond what he is-”

“I wasn’t talking about Bucky”

He sighed and shook his head “He hates him”

“He doesn’t hate you”

“But he feels I betrayed him by not telling him about what he did”

“What?”

“I knew his parents were killed by Hydra and I didn’t tell him. Zemo ended up showing him it was Bucky who did it. After that our truce was over and Tony tried to kill him.”

“Oh wow”

“Yeah, I should have told him, he probably wouldn’t have reacted that way”

“Well, what changed his mind?”

He shrugged “I don’t really know, maybe once he calmed down, he realized this wouldn’t bring his parents back”

“I see why you are worried”

“Yeah, I just don’t know how much more Bucky can take, he is strong, but he is also human”

She nodded “What will you do about it?”

“I don’t know, I guess, all I can do is be by his side and comfort him after everything happens, while keeping an eye on Tony and making sure he doesn’t hurt him”

“Sounds like a good plan, let me know if you want my help” she winked

“Oh, like it’s an option, He started to wear his arc reactor everywhere he goes; the possibility hasn’t passed upon him.”

“Understandable” she nodded

“Yeah, all of it is. It’s not really fair to ask Tony to treat him more nicely, he is doing enough, but at the same time-”

“Your problem is that you care for both of them”

“Yeah…”

“Well, I think we can safely assume that they reciprocate that feeling. So calm down, they might want to hurt each other, but they won’t want to hurt you”

His thoughts drifted back to what Tony said about limited potential actions as the base of politics “That makes sense” he nodded “You are right!” he smiled. In this situation, he was the one who was in control, so he was going to keep them from hurting each other with it.


	20. I swear, this is how he shows affection

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Ok new chapter, Tony is mean as hell but what else is new. Also please check out my new chapter in my Game of Thrones crossover fic here http://archiveofourown.org/works/7080835/chapters/16224203

Bucky was sitting on his chair, it was comfortable enough, but he doubted he was going to be able to sleep either ways, especially not in the middle of a lab, and he started to hyperventilate because of it.

“Ok, ok, that’s it” he heard Stark’s voice from the speakers “I need Natasha and I need a song” he seemed frustrated

“Woah, Tony what are you-“

“Don’t mind me Cap, im going to get things to work as I usually do”

Bucky didn’t have time to get scared because right away, he saw him busting the door open with a worried Steve walking behind “Good evening sunshine, are we needing some help to catch some sleep here? I take it counting sheep hasn’t been working” Steve just gave him a reassuring look but asides from that, did nothing to help Bucky. Great, so he wasn’t going to stop him, good to know.

“So... what do we need a better chair? A music box? You name it” he asked impatiently

Bucky just looked down, letting out a shaky breath “It’s fine, I just… I haven’t been able to sleep for a long time”

“That explains the crazy eyes”

“Tony!” Steve reprimanded him

“What? This may come as a surprise to you, but I got a case of the crazy eyes too” He turned to Bucky again “Listen, here’s what we are going to do: We are going to get you your own room, and it’s going to be big, full of windows and so well lit you are going to want to gauge your own eyes out, how does that sound?”

“Uhm... it… what? Why?”

“I have a spare room right now; we can get it fixed up get Steve-o to sing you a lullaby”

“H-how will you get me down here?”

“We’ll figure it out, listen, I don’t want to drug you or get Red to mess with your thinkpan just yet, we don’t know if you might snap, so we need an honest to god, natural nap.”

He sighed “I don’t think I can fall asleep anywhere, thank you, but I don’t”

“It scares you, I get it” he pouted mockingly “You get scary dreams and don’t know what to do about it”

“What do you know about it!” he snapped, shutting his fist and barely holding back from punching him in the face

“Believe me, I think I might have an idea” he said sarcastically “I spent years dealing with that kind of shit, and have you noticed something? That’s right I’m here, this means that I found a way to fall asleep, and at this point it’s probably close to a thousand times I managed to sleep nevertheless”

Bucky was silent for a long time, shivering “You haven’t seen what I’ve seen, you haven’t done what I’ve done!”

“Oh boo hoo, poor miserable Bucky whining pitifully in all his murderous glory”

There was a long silence as both Steve and Bucky stood there in shock “you have no idea” Bucky begun but Tony cut him off

“Listen to me!”He yelled at him, moving forward in a threatening manner “you might be a sad excuse for a human being but I made a promise to Steve, and I made a promise to Wanda, and now I’m going to make a fucking promise to you. You are going to do what I say, if I say sleep, you sleep; if I say sneeze you sneeze, and you are going to get your shit together and get rid of this ‘hail hydra’ nonsense in your brain, or I’m going to hunt you down and get rid of it for you”

Bucky let out a bitter chuckle “you think that there’s still hope for me”

Tony slapped him in the face at that “I don’t care if there’s hope for you or not, if there’s nothing there then I will make something, because believe me, you don’t get the privilege to wallow in your own misery after what you’ve done, you don’t deserve that kind of self pity. So figure things out and get some sleep. I don’t care how, just sleep, if you want me to buy you a teddy bear, let me know but find a fucking solution!” he said and stormed out

There was a long silence before Steve spoke again “I think in his own way he is trying to help you”

“Yeah, no doubt” he chuckled, putting a hand over his cheek “Is that true, about him having a hard time sleeping?”

“It is, he’s had night terrors for years.”

“Well maybe that’s why he knew about the big room with big windows”

“Or maybe it’s because he also got tortured in a cave while everyone gave him for dead” he pointed out

Bucky bit his lip “I still don’t think I can get any sleep”

“Sure you can, follow me to the gym room; we’ll tire you out so it’s easier for you”

He let out a soft nod and smiled faintly “alright”


	21. SOrry!

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> nothing to see here!

Hello everyone! I just wanted to give you a quick update on what I'm up to, why I haven't posted any new content in a while, and of course, tell you my plans for the future!

So first and foremost, I've been putting a lot of work into my webcomic _Lose my Marvels._ I was about to give up on it when i found K, my wonderful, wonderful artist. If you like yaoi/BL, check it out! It's still in it's early stages, but we are both dedicated to it and will definitely take it forward (and if it helps, the script is already written)

https://tapastic.com/series/Lose-my-Marvels

Now that we got that out of the way, let's talk about the future! No, I'm not dumping this series, I promise! I'm just taking a small break to deal with the finals, I might upload a flashback chapter in a couple of days, to get some escapism from all the stress with the Finals and my comic, but don't worry, I haven't forgotten about you. All.. five of you XD

 

Thanks for sticking around y'all! It might not look like it, but I'm very insecure about my work, and the fact that you are enjoying this little trash I wrote really means a lot!


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